The present invention relates electrostatic protection testing, monitoring, and human-machine visual interface systems and methods of use including user interfaces facilitate management and testing of grounding wrist strap assemblies with various aspects that reduce human error and provide various automation features and systems. More particularly, exemplary embodiments are directed to providing automation and visual interfaces associated with testing electrical resistance of grounding wrist strap assemblies, recording grounding wrist strap assembly measured electrical resistance measurement value(s) in an electronic file, and providing a user interface that graphically indicates users and other staff, e.g., quality control, management, etc., whether a detected measured electrical resistance measurement value falls between a predetermined range of range of allowed measured electrical resistance measurement values associated with a functioning grounding wrist strap assembly.
Some embodiments of the invention address a need to simplify and automate various aspects or processes related to resistance testing of grounding wrist strap assemblies. Some exemplary embodiments are also directed to addressing a need to reduce human error in reading and recording measured electrical resistance measurement values of grounding wrist strap assemblies that are integrated into work activities and industrial process design and analysis including worker movements through a facility to electrostatic protected workstations. Some embodiments are integrated into facility and equipment automation systems including entry control systems, workstation operation systems, and visual interface systems at, for example, user locations and quality control or management user interfaces.
According to an illustrative embodiment, the present invention can comprise grounding wrist strap assembly testing software adapted for executing a series of computations and generating results and wrist strap tester software interface equipment. In various embodiments the grounding wrist strap assembly tester software interface equipment can further comprise a grounding wrist strap testing system personal computer (PC), a Digital Multi-meter (DMM) card, and a test interface station.
For example, an embodiment can provide a solution to meet unmet needs that includes automatically recording measured electrical resistance measurement value(s) of grounding wrist strap assemblies, automatically determining whether measured electrical resistance measurement value(s) fall below, within, or above a predetermined range of allowed measured electrical resistance measurement values, and graphically indicating whether tested grounding wrist strap assemblies' electrical resistance has “passed” or “failed” according to the predetermined range of allowed measured electrical resistance measurement values.
An additional embodiment can provide unmet solutions by automatically storing and organizing recorded measured electrical resistance measurement value(s) associated with a user of a particular grounding wrist strap assembly, as well as recording a time a specifically identified grounding wrist strap assembly was last tested, comparing said time with a current time and provide a graphical indication to the user of that particular grounding wrist strap assembly and other interested parties (via computer-based interfaces) of an amount of time elapsed between testing events.
Another embodiment can provide a means of selecting a desired name from a list of previously established users and displaying associated grounding wrist strap assembly information to a user. For example, grounding wrist strap assembly information can include all previous measured electrical resistance measurement values for a specified grounding wrist strap assembly and a color code system that indicates an urgency to perform a grounding wrist strap assembly electrical resistance test based on predetermined time ranges. For example, time ranges for a color code system can be defined as “yellow,” indicating a last testing event has not occurred within four hours of a current (e.g., test) time, and “orange,” indicating a last testing event has not occurred within six hours of the current time.
An additional embodiment can provide a graphical color code indication system to describe whether a grounding wrist strap assembly currently being tested has “failed” or “passed.” For example a graphical indication of “green” can indicate that a currently tested grounding wrist strap assembly has passed an electrical resistance test based on the predetermined set of allowed measured electrical resistance measurement values while a graphical indication of “red” can indicate that the currently tested grounding wrist strap assembly has failed an electrical resistance test again based on the predetermined set of parameters.
Another feature can include a means of predicting a failure event. For example, a machine implementation can be created which records measured electrical resistance measurement values from a previous week, compares them to a current week, and, if the recorded measured electrical resistance measurement values differ by a predetermined amount, for example 100,000 ohms, determines a projected date when recorded electrical resistance measurement value(s) will fall below a predetermined acceptable level.
Another embodiment of this invention can be incorporated into a security system for a building or a workplace where static charge checks would be necessary. A grounding wrist strap assembly electrical resistance testing system comprising an apparatus and software as described above could be integrated into a security system for a workplace location at various access points into and out of a desired location. Along with security measures (e.g. a user-specific magnetic keycard), the security system can also require grounding wrist strap assembly electrical resistance testing before allowing passage into or out of the location. Since grounding wrist strap assembly electrical resistance tests could be required to enter or leave a location, stored user test data, including a date and time, could also reveal which users are present in the location at a given time. If a plurality of access points are present each with its own grounding wrist strap assembly electrical resistance testing system 1, the exemplary apparatus could also record at which access point a user's grounding wrist strap electrical resistance test had occurred by a unique identification number or name for each access point.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.